1945- First Pepe Le Pew cartoon, "Odorable Kitty".
When the Warners producer who replaced Leon Schlesinger, Eddie Selzer, heard
the plans to do a short about a skunk he thundered: "Absolutely Not!
Nobody will like a cartoon skunk!" Chuck Jones recalled: "As soon as
he said no, I knew we just had to do it." Selzer's final opinion:"
Nobody'll laugh at that sh*t!" Pepe went on to become one of Warners most
beloved characters.

1949- Composer Leonard Bernstein noted in his diary
that“JR (Jerome Robbins) called today with a novel idea- a modern version of
Romeo and Juliet set in the slums.” At first the musical was going to be
called East Side Story, then GangWay, finally West Side Story.

1956- Prince Rainier of Monaco announced his engagement to
movie star Grace Kelly.

1962- Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea
Serpent. This was the animated version of his popular puppet show.“So Long Kids, Wind Up Your Lids, We’ll look
for You Real Soooooon.”

1975-“ Ease on Down
the Road.-“ The musical The Wiz premiered on Broadway.

1993- Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev, the most famous male
dancer since Nijinsky, died of HIV/AIDS.

1995- In another great step for low journalism, CBS anchor
Connie Chung gets Kathleen Gingrich, the mother of Republican Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich, to call First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a “bitch”. In an
earlier time such gutter utterances would have been politely edited, but this
was given national prominence.